I've been designing a long doggone time, and one of the things that you end up needing to do if you come up with a lot of original designs is you'll need to come up with a lot of original names.....

Well, anyway, what more perfect name for a freestyle plane than 'Ballerina'.

Unfortunately (and fortunately) my buddy Jerry (also a designer) already applied that name to a tiny little foamy he designed. Really the name fits very well, and the plane is fun so no worries.

As for the plane, I built it as a bit of foamy building practice without the time cutting parts. Jerry gave me this kit a couple years ago, but I never had any time to build it until this past week.

It weighs 49 grams rtf and is a lot of fun. Its not an airplane I'll be flying for freestyle or precision, but its definitely got the cute factor going on in spades.

Propellers.

More work going on.
I inventoried all of my gear from last year and all of the remaining supplies I have left over.

I also spent a little time 'tuning' the drawings of my next build. I'd like to get something cut and assembled over the next week, but my wife and daughter have both been sick with an early fall cold (as have I), so I may have to wait. Maybe I'll get lucky.

This year is going to be exciting from a technical perspective atmo. Last year, people really pushed things 'out of the box' technically, and I don't think this year will be any different. I figure just about everyone is working on something or has a designer working with them on something new. I have my own bag of tricks, but I won't give them away.

One thing I will say is that I will likely go all monoplane. I have designed and built countless biplanes, but I always have trouble building one as square as I would like to. I have developed a method for building monos that works well and I'm gonna stick with it (its really an adaptation of how I've seen others build monos).

I just recieved my order from tower and other sites...


now I have alota work to do before the 19th of this month

So normally when Max is in the office banging on the keyboards all night, I'm hanging out watching some TV. So, I just decided to start a blog about the TV shows I watch while you are all on the computer!

ROCK OF LOVE - THE REUNION
So, yes, I watched the entire season of Rock of Love; and yes, I like Bret Michaels. Oh by the way, Max liked watching it too. But not because of Bret, it may have had something to do with all the chick on chick stuff. I hate Lacie, and they totally gave her waaaayyyy too much time on the TV! She's so ugly and disgusting. Anyways, all along I really liked Jes and I was really happy that he picked her, but what the H? She came out at the reunion and kind of dissed Bret, telling him he should have picked Heather! Lame! Why did I even watch that show?? I hate TV! Now, I have to decide if I'm going to watch I Love New York or not ... yes, I am pathetic!

THE OFFICE - FUN RUN
Just watched the DVR'd premier episode of The Office. Loving Jim & Pam (PB & J). I'm over Dwight and the blond. Michael is still a crack up!! He's just so sad and adorable at the same time. Rabies?? LOL!

THE OFFICE - DUNDER MIFFLIN INFINITY
Watched this one too. Like the story line with Ryan as the new Corp boss. Creed is classic!! I loved how he just showed up with new hair! Seems like he might be getting more airtime this season. And of course the new company logo and web site are awesome...

http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/

We also watch a lot of CSI, Family Guy, Law & Order and I'm trying to get into a few other shows. We'll see what I have time for ...

my yellow extra - first flew it with a 91fx and then later a Saito 100 - my first warbird - still have it in perfect condition

After having my U-Can-Do sitting a round for a while I decided to sell it. I pulled out the receiver and was about to take it to the LHS when my wife talked me out of it and I put it back in my trailer where it sat for a while.

Saturday I took it out and decided to give it a run just to keep the Saito .91 happy. I ended up flying it several times because I had forgotten how much fun it was! Its like flying a giant foamy. Its a fun break from all the serious IMAC flying.

I'm glad I kept my UCD.

I've flown the sim all summer. Even though I've had little time to get to the field, I managed to get in approximately 30 mins of sim time each day. While I would have liked to practice precision on it, I don't find the sim works as good as 'real' flying for precision work. Its great however for Freestyle work. I always fly to music as well.... everything is done to the mood and beat of the music.

Real foamy practicing got going today as well. I took my beater foamy from last years bunch and spent time under the lights at the local churchyard. I don't have anywhere inside aranged yet to practice at. However I do have a huge open church parking lot that never turns off the lights.

Sun was down at 7:20 or so, so I headed over with some charged packs and tore up the sky for a bit. Always fun to do that.


Another good subject to think about has been music. I literally was finding music the day after the last contest from last season. I'm hoping I've found some good stuff.

First of all, Please allowed me to say sincerely sorry to all the people who supporting SD-Models for the past years.
I am the owner of SD Model, I have lend around 300,000USD to help one of my friends in Hong Kong</ST1 for ARF airplane production. But finally his business is gone. I have no choice but only to pay the factory rent and workers salary for him and then take over his business. I don’t want to see so many excellent works lost their’s job..<O</O
Unfortunately I only have the experience in making the airplanes and have no much experience in sales. I can’t find the right way to promote our models.<O</O
After discuss with my friend Aling, the chairman of Thunder Tiger I recognized in order more hobby enthusiasts can know our models and fly our models, Joint with Thunder Tiger is a wise idea for me. Since Aling, The chairman of Thunder Tiger He is a successful man in sales target. And is the right person I am waiting and looking to promote our wonderful models in the past years.<O</O
Wish all of you have a wonderful day.<O</O
Best Regards <O</O
Mr Lao

Well, it is time to get kicking for foamy season.....

I've started talking with all my buddies looking for Foamy Freestyle and Pattern contests to fly in. Seems like a few have gone by the wayside this year.

I'm also working on getting new birds together to see what works.

My goal this year is to get down to one airframe design for each discipline and use it all year. That way, I will focus on practice of the known routines and on my freestyle.

Realistically, I spent too much time 'perfecting' my airframes and not enough practicing each segment of the comps... I don't plan to make that mistake this year.

So with that, I'm starting early.

I've managed to get some good motors which appear to be tops in performance. If I stay with the smaller/lighter Pattern planes I ran last year, then I'll stick with the Mighty Midget F3P Motor. However, I may end up with something bigger and that may necessitate a more powerful motor.......

Today was useful, because I had jury duty.... It let out earlier than work however, so I came home and ran motors and props through the wattmeter....

Here is one of last year's airplanes geared up as a test mule for this year...

My daughter called a few weeks back and told me she was going to get married and asked if the wedding could be held outside at my place. She wanted to do a Halloween theme wedding with everyone in costume.

Last night she was over and we were looking the place over to see were to set everything up. We got to discussing decorations. One of the things we wanted to do is to set up a small grave yard.

I have a stack of 4 inch thick styrofoam that I purchased last year, and decided that it would make great tombstones. I set and started playing with the first design last night.

With one piece of foam 4 feet square, a band saw, a hot wire, Dremel, some glue and a couple cans of spray paint, this is what I came up with.

I am a fun-flyer at best. I mash sticks.

But now that's getting boring so it's time to take 3D and/or IMAC more seriously than some less than steller attempts at basic hovering.

I have G3.5, so in addition to the standard thread subscriptions and board reading, I'm going to spend some time understanding one maneuver really well in the simulator and then I'm going to take that to the field and practice it.

I've never "practiced" anything in RC flying so far except landing. Hopefully, mixing it up in this way will keep me interested.

This means the DA-50 should be showing up at Desert Aircraft tommorow and that means I am 1 day closer to getting it back.

I flew my Aeroworks 1.20 sized Yak on Saturday since the Extra didn't have an engine.

While I don't have anything against this airplane and was really impressed with their Quick Build series, it's really hard to go back to glow once you have gotten the taste of gas.

I paid full retail price for everything on that model and it's set up real nice, but I really should of just skipped straight and put the money in to 50cc.

I guess I shouldn't complain to much; as least I had a back-up plane to fly.

Today I manage to talk a friend into taking some pictures of my yak. Sense the IMAC season is over and the New sequences I could not think of a reason not to do some hucking!

I went to the garage that day and tried to start the engine.

Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.

Nothing. It would not start.

I put it aside and tried again the next day.

And the day after that.

Three days later I blow off work and drag the plane down to Airwild to get a second opinion.

Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.

We replace the Ignition module. We replace the Spark Plug. We confirm we are getting fuel.

Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.

Nothing. But, we realize we are not getting any spark (regardless of the spark plug or Ignition module combination).

I call DA and take them through every step we tried.

DA thinks the Ignition Sensor has gone out. He sends me a replacement at not cost via 2-day UPS.

Wow. That's service.

Two days later I put the new sensor on. With the spark plug and boot removed the engine:

Flip. Spark. Flip. Spark.

Looking good, I re-assemble the plane.

Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip. Flip.

Nothing.

I then proceeded to remove and re-attach the spark plug no less than a half a dozen times.

No dice.

In an act of desperation, I think perhaps I am not seating the spark plug as well as I should.

I give a bit of extra torque on the socket wrench.

Mistake.

I shredded the spark plug right then. Imagine busting a light bulb in the socket, but 10x worse.

I did manage to get the spark plug out with some pliers and patience, but destroyed the threads.

I felt sick for twenty-four hours.

Everything is now on it's way back to DA.

Experience - the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something.

For me and RC airplanes experience usually means:

1. Hundreds of hours in the garage tinkering, destroying, and occasionally having some success with the project at hand.
2. Large credit card bills

Hi, my name is David. My friends just call me "Vahn."

My blog will be about the experiences I am currently having.

I have recently stepped head first into "giant scale" RC models withe the purchase of a 50cc Airwild Extra 260. It's my first gas engine plane.

Just days before this, I joined Flying Giants.

Although I am not a huge contributor like many of the names I see on every 10th post, I do read a lot and subscribe to a few threads.

Why not contribute more? Well, I don't have ... you guessed it ... the experience.

In fact, if you read any of the 19 posts I have made, it's usually asking the Flying Giants community to verify some very basic assumptions.

My initial experience with my Extra 260 had been fantastic.

The plane was put together by a semi-professional builder. The engine was used, but lightly so and well broken in. I trusted the seller who I fly with every Saturday morning.

My first day of flying with my new Extra went very well. I flew six times for about eight to ten minutes each. The engine behaved like a textbook DA-50 should.

• Flip five to six times choke.
• Pop.
• Flip five to six times not chocked.
• Start.
• Re-start in one to three turns the next few flights.

Sounds like a great experience, right?

I took the plane home that day and put it aside.

The next day, I thought I would do some throttle servo programming.

Although my DX-7 does not have throttle curves, I wanted to adjust the travel adjust.

The engine wanted -140 points before it would idle (reliably) it 1700 RPM.

On the other hand, it didn't seem like I was getting anything more than max 7000 RPM at about 70% of the stick movement. I wasn't looking for more RPM, I just didn't want to see that number till I was full stick up.

The "play" to control the speed was limited to the bottom of the stick to just above the middle.

Right here is where things started to go wrong and have progressed in the wrong direction... to be continued.

Headed to school tomorrow, then after school I'm drivin to Danny and Brendan's. Gonna leave Saturday morning from the airport down there in Kentucky! CANT WAIT!!!!! Tomorrow is gonna take forever though . . . .

Will be practicing Saturday, Sunday, Monday and possibly Tuesday depending on the crowds. I will be flying my Gen 3 102" QQ Yak if you want to say hey! May get the old Generation 1 QQ Yak out to do a little 3D as well . . .

Cant wait!

~Seth

well the first bipe - a super decathlon with a super tiger .51 from seagull models and a yellow extra 300 with a saito 91 - still have both

This is it. Crunch time before the Shootout. Spent last night getting the Dalton cleaned up and checking every screw and linkage. Then I topped off the batteries and will deliver it over to my buddy ralph lang's house tonight so he cantake it to Tucson tomorrow with his plane. I'll be leaving Sunday with Twizlair... or "TWIZZY" as Max calls him... in the MAN VAN!

I was putting together a spare parts kit and managed to find out I have enough parts (minus engine) to setup another plane! So after the shootout, another build thread is ON!

Lastly, I'm bringing the famed Giants Foamie and my QQ Byp Yak wit the DX7 for parking lot and hotel hyjinx.

Hope my wife doesn't mind me swiping a knife, cutting board and frying pan for me to use in my culinary humiliation of madmax at the BLT cookoff Friday afternoon. I just spoke to him and we agreed the loser has to wear a pink t-shirt with a stinging phrase on it for the rest of Friday. We were going to shave the head of the loser, but we decided against it. A. because it would make it a non-contest...The crowd would want max bald and B. Out of respect, he is starting a new job and it's not good to show up to work at a NEW job with no hair. I think the plan is to cook a butt-load of BLT's and hand them out afterwards.

Anyway, after the plane is dropped off tonight, it's time to clean the house, mow the lawn and get some Q time with the family unit. I'm really going to miss them.

Anyway, back to work!

Latah FOOLS!!!

The Super One

Dang it. At work, at the store... I can't get away from sick people. I'm trying very hard to avoid virus' this week. I just know I'll get it and be sick for the whole Shootout. Or, worse yet, get sick and give it to my wife or two month old son BEFORE I leave. Then they will be sick without help all week. That will fly like a lead balloon.

so, I'm drinking and Emergen-C everyday, washing my hands every 20 minutes and not touching doorknobs or key pads without pulling my sleeve down over my finger. ACK!

This madness never ends! One of my troops just came into my office sneezing and coughing. MADNESS!!!!!!!

I'll go wash my hands then cross my fingers.